Naturally Al Batt

Why is it called a murmuration?

 Naturally

The bear went over the mountain, to see what he could see.
I walked over the yard to see what I could see and hear.
It had been a day of the black-capped chickadee’s whistling “Spring’s here,” an abundance of boxelder bugs and dandelion plants showing green.
The shadows were bending in the afternoon under the weight of the sun when I heard the dark-eyed juncos making toy ray gun sounds. Pew, pew, pew! The gray birds with white bellies and outer tail feathers are called snowbirds because they usher in the snow. The junco, looking like a gray bird that landed in a can of white paint, is a common spring and fall migrant throughout Minnesota, and a common winter visitor in the southern part of the state. The junco’s eyes are dark and the bill a light pink. Females are a lighter gray. I see more of the darker-colored males than the females in the winter. Females are more common in the southern states, overwintering as far as northern Mexico. The males risk harsh winters in the north in order to get a head start on the spring journey back to their breeding territories in northeastern Minnesota and Canada. They’re sometimes accompanied by American tree sparrows that appear to be wearing tie tacks without neckties. It’s a good look and one I may emulate. This sparrow breeds across northern Canada and Alaska, and despite having "tree" in its name, it’s a ground bird. It forages and nests on the ground.

Q&A

“Why do birds look fatter in the winter than in summer?” Humans look heavier in the winter, too, but it’s because we wear puffy coats in winter. Birds can’t wear puffy coats because that would interfere with their ability to fly. A farmer friend says he puts on winter weight in case the winter proves to be a harsh one and he can’t afford to buy an egg. This pronouncement causes his wife’s eyes to roll all the way around in her head. That’s a remarkable feat, but so is what feathers can do. Some birds grow more feathers for insulation. They learned how to do that by watching humans put on long underwear. Birds fluff their feathers to trap the air between the feathers and the skin. A bird’s body heat warms the trapped air, which keeps the bird warm. The average body temperature of a bird is 105 degrees. The fluffed feathers give birds a profile that makes them look plumper. They aren’t fat, they’re fluffy.
“Why is a flock of starlings called a murmuration?” A murmuration of starlings is a shapeshifting cloud of swirling birds that alternately grows larger and shrinks. The elegant movement of a flock of starlings welcomes contemplation and creates stunning art in the sky. The movement of the flock is choreographed collectively by all members of the flock. The fluidity of motion results when one starling changes direction or speed, and each of the other birds in the flock responds to the change nearly simultaneously, as the group responds as one. I reckon the collective noun “murmuration,” derives from the sounds made by the wingbeats of many birds in flight. I’ve had a flock of starlings swoop low over my head with a loud whoosh before twirling away. The wing song made me duck. Maybe it should be called a whoosh of starlings?
“Where do male goldfinches first show spring colors?” Uffdah! That’s a tough question about a wild canary that refuses to answer questions. This is a wild guess, but I’m going to say in Dublin, Georgia. Yeah, that’s it, Dublin, Georgia. I’ll bet yellow feathers abound there. Oh, wait a second. My sweet wife, The Queen B, just told me that this was a plumage question and not a geographical question. I told her I knew that. Please don’t tell her anything different. It’ll be our little secret. There are many colors on a bird’s palette. The first signs of a male American goldfinch’s molt into a breeding plumage show around the head. The pale edges of the wing feathers wear and fade, and the bill color begins changing to a pale orange. This progresses with more yellow and black feathers around the head and more yellow on the body. It creates expectations, and I welcome the sight of the tiny birds that have become flying dandelions.

Thanks for stopping by

“Nature is my church. The wind in the trees and the bugs and the frogs. All those things are comfort to me.”—Sissy Spacek.
“We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It's easy to say ‘It's not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.’ Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.”—Fred Rogers.
Do good.

©️Al Batt 2025

Starlings develop yellow bills during the breeding season, with the base of lower mandible blue in males, pink in females. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote, “A birdie with a yellow bill Hopped upon my window sill, Cocked his shining eye and said: ‘Ain't you 'shamed, you sleepy-head!’" Clellan Card played Axel Torgeson on “Axel and His Dog,” a popular kid’s show and said, “A birdie with a yellow bill Hopped upon my window sill, Cocked his shining eye and said, ‘What’s that in the road…ahead?’” Photo by Al Batt.